Harout and Vanessa were the winners of the Harsanik Engagement Photoshoot Giveaway with Jay Jay Studios. As part of the giveaway terms, we asked the couple to allow us to share their photos on social media. Not only did Harout and Vanessa share their photos with us, but they even gave us and our followers on Instagram backstage access to their entire photo session! We didn't expect to fall head over heels in love with this couple when Jay Jay Studios did our Instagram Takeover in April. After their photo session, we connected with them to learn a bit more about them. Harout and Vanessa are both Armenian and were born in Southern California. Harout works in Venture Capital and Vanessa is an attorney. We thoroughly enjoyed connecting with these young professionals and learning all about their love story, their romantic proposal, and their gorgeous engagement photoshoot at the LACMA Urban Lights.

When and how did you two meet?

La La Land was not only an Academy Award winning movie, but it also was the inspiration of many proposals in Los Angeles. After all many of the iconic scenes from the movie were filmed in Burbank, CA which made it easy for men to plan an effortless proposal at a famous movie location. But for Vache and Maria this movie-inspired proposal didn't go quite as planned. Keep reading to find out how Maria getting the flu almost cost her the proposal of a lifetime.

Recently, a very dear friend of Harsanik co-founders Marineh and Garen, Sevada Mardirosian, got engaged. Marineh and Sevada went to Hoover High School together (Go Tornadoes!) and Sevada still jokes that he is the reason Marineh was able to attend her high school graduation ceremony. Sevada mentioned to Marineh a few days before the proposal his plans of popping the question, and we were ecstatic with the wonderful news. And it was no surprise that Sevada planned an incredibly romantic proposal since he is a hopeless romantic. He paid attention to every tiny detail and made sure to sweep Lusineh off her feet. We're thrilled to feature Sevada and Lusineh's love story and proposal details on Harsanik!

Tell us about how you two met and what drew you to each other.

Face it, the wedding is for the bride. After all in Armenian word for wedding, “Harsanik”, has the word Hars (bride) in it! But this doesn’t mean you, the groom, can’t enjoy the wedding or the process. After years of running Harsanik.com and now having had my own Harsanik, here are some tips I’d like to share with fellow grooms:

Tip #1: Prioritize

Define the scope of your wedding and stick to the main goals. Essentially have an MVP and keep things simple. The more elements you add to the wedding, the more things can go wrong.

Tip #2: Hire Professionals

The Happiest Place on Earth just got a little more magical for Roubena and Sarkis! Both being Disney lovers, it was no surprise that Sako chose to propose to Roubena in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle in Disneyland. We sat down with Roubena and Sako to get all the details of how they met, the proposal, and their wedding planning adventures to date.

Hey Harsanik readers. I’m so glad that I FINALLY, after two years of being engaged, got to have a celebration that is marriage related! On March 3rd, I got to celebrate my bridal shower. As many of you know I lagged planning my bridal shower until the very last minute, but I have to say that it was the best shower ever.

My theme for the shower was all centered around my mom’s engagement dress and a LOVE letter design that I was in love with from a photo on Pinterest. Because Pearl Banquet Hall was so modern I decided the best design idea would be to make everything silver/mirrored and all different shades of pink. This ended up being the most beautiful idea ever.

It has been a long time Harsanik readers, but I am glad to be back with more of my journey down the aisle. For those who are reading my blogs for the first time, my name is Manifa and I have been planning my wedding since June 2017! Seems like it has been FOREVER! You can catch up on my wedding planning experience in Manifa's Story blog series. The date is now getting closer and I cannot wait to finalize everything and see how it all turns out on my wedding day.

When it came down to planning all the little events that would happen before our wedding, my fiancé Emin and I, decided to keep the events to a minimum and just focus on planning the best wedding ever. My mom had reached out and offered to plan us an Engagement party, but we really didn’t want one so I asked her if she could throw me a bridal shower instead. I love bridal showers. They are one of my favorite events that happen before a wedding so I really wanted to have my own. My mom agreed and from there we started planning.

Garen's and my saga began on a rainy fall day. It was our first date and we had decided to go to the Natural History Museum (yes, we are self-described nerds). We realized that we had something special when what was supposed to be a nice leisurely date at the museum, ended almost eight hours later with a trip to two museums, lunch, and dinner.

Can't believe our wedding has already passed! Garen and I recently got our wedding photos so I can't wait to share my wedding blog post soon. Until then, I'll start off with my favorite wedding topic - flowers! As a woman who absolutely loves flowers, my wedding flowers were a top priority. My amazing wedding florist, Giah Events Studio, and I worked for months on using the perfect flowers and other decor to create the right ambiance for both the wedding ceremony and reception.

Trndez is a beautiful Armenian tradition that takes place on the eve of February 13th or morning of February 14th. It's often referred to as the Armenian version of Valentine's Day. With Trndez around the corner, we're featuring our Bride's Story Manifa's blog from last year where she explains how she and Emin celebrated this Armenian holiday and shares a video of the two jumping over the fire!

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Hello and Happy Trndez everyone! Well it’s a few days after, but still! I am so excited to be sharing this blog with you all. As many of you know Emin and I haven’t really participated in many Armenian traditions so when it came to celebrating Trndez we really wanted to make it all so authentic.

When we first got engaged my mother in law asked me if I wanted her to bring me a bajeen. This is the little gifts her and her family bring for me on certain holidays. I really didn’t care for any of them except Trndez. What is Trndez you all ask? Well it’s a holiday to celebrate new brides that is celebrated on the eve of February 13th or sometimes in the morning of February 14th. Usually the bride’s family invites the groom’s family to their house and the groom’s family brings some special foods and gifts for the bride. The bride and groom go to church together and bring home a candle which they use to light a fire. Once the fire is lit they walk around it three times and then jump over the fire three times. Doing this blesses them with a happy marriage.